The 8th graduation ceremony of IPMC

ADDRESS BY HON. PROF. NAANA JANE OPOKU AGYEMANG, MINISTER OF EDUCATION ON THE OCCASION OF THE 8TH GRADUATION CEREMONY OF IPMC COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY AT THE NATIONAL THEATER, ACCRA

Mr. Chairman,The Chief Executive Officer, IPMC,The Chairperson and Members of the IPMC Board of Directors,Motivational SpeakersInvited Guests,Parents and Guardians,Graduands,Ladies and Gentlemen

I deem it an honour to be invited to this special graduation ceremony of the IPMC College of Technology. I wish to congratulate the staff of IPMC for the great job done in training these students that are graduating today. I also wish to congratulate you the granduands for being able to successfully complete your courses of study in ICT under difficult conditions. It will be unfair for me to leave your parents who have sacrificed their resources to bring you this far. For the Parents l say ayekoo!!!.

In fact l feel the joy as l watch you prepare for this ceremony. I saw the hugging… the high five’s and l saw your unbridled enthusiasm for what you have accomplished.

Mr. Chairman, l am aware that on a day of such high excitement, what you require first and foremost of a speaker is brevity. I don’t intend to fail you in this respect.

To the graduands, I want to remind all of you that, you are graduating at a time when our nation is faced with myriads of challenges but as we all know technology offers a lot of opportunities for dealing with challenges so you should be worthy ambassadors who are capable of thinking outside the box and offer useful technological solutions to our problems. l therefore want to challenge you to take that enthusiasm that surrounds you today out into the world with you and use it to obtain your goals.

In the past, when it was difficult for people to travel from one destination to another, when it was difficult to exchange goods and services among nations, it was technology that came to our rescue. Today, we should also be able to apply technology to solving the problems that confront us as a people. It won’t be easy but we can get there if we should conceptualize the use of ICT as:

a commodity that is supporting development activities,

a driver of the economy and directed at specific development activities.

As you continue your quest for knowledge and to discover your own unique ways to contribute to our society l urge you to be innovative and critical in thinking. You will be successful if you ask the relevant questions. Eg. what challenges do we face? Then define the challenges. You can now ask what should we do and how do we get there?

As young graduates going into the world l urge you not go and join the “Association of Unemployed Graduates” and be waiting for someone to employ you. That may be a mirage. Rather exploit the several opportunities ICT offers to create jobs for yourselves and others for improved living standards.

ICT presents enormous potential for people to make wealth because it has no geographical limits. Information on any aspect of life abounds and can be freely obtained so examples of successes and failures are there for all to learn from.

ICT is, and will continue to be, a catalyst in advancing development. This is because ICT as a sector can contribute immensely to the national GDP of a nation and that ICT acting as an enabler can result in improved market competitiveness of a nation’s products and services.

The use of social media for the negative reasons is now on the ascendency. I would therefore want to advice our young graduates to avoid using the knowledge acquired to slander and dupe people on social media platforms since this can affect the international image of the country and also bring trouble to you as individuals.

In closing, l would ask the graduates to join me in a round of applause for the family members and faculty who helped them reach this milestone.

And to those in the audience who are here to honour these fine young adults please stand and join me in saluting our graduates from IPMC.